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Ryan Miller, Sven Baertschi return as Vancouver Canucks close out road trip |
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Tuesday December 13 - Vancouver Canucks at Carolina Hurricanes - 4 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific
Vancouver Canucks: 29 GP, 12-15-2, 26 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
Carolina Hurricanes: 28 GP, 11-11-6, 28 pts, seventh in Metropolitan Division
The Vancouver Canucks wrap up their five-game Eastern road trip with a visit to Raleigh to take on the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.
After sitting out Sunday's shutout loss to the Washington Capitals as a healthy scratch, Sven Baertschi returns to the lineup today.
With one extra healthy forward, Brendan Gaunce seems like a logical choice for a player to sit out. After playing in 20 games last season, Gaunce has appeared in all 29 of the Canucks games to date in 2016-17. He has three assists and is averaging 8:26 of ice time per game, but played just 6:09 on Sunday in Washington.
After his one-game sojourn up to play with Horvat and Burrows, Jack Skille returns to his more familiar fourth-line role, skating with Jayson Megna and Michael Chaput.
After Baertschi's benching, he's slotting back onto his regular line, and is also getting new responsibilities on a re-jiggered first power-play unit.
The Canucks desperately need some production from their faltering power play but as I mentioned yesterday, tonight's game will be a challenging situation for them to find that spark. The Hurricanes have the best penalty killing in the NHL with a 92.1 percent success rate. They've been shorthanded on home ice less than any other team in the league—just 26 times in 10 home games—and have given up only three power-play goals at home all year.
Vancouver went 0-for-2 with the man advantage when they overcame that 3-0 deficit to beat the Hurricanes 4-3 in overtime on October 16, back at Rogers Arena.
Ryan Miller practiced with the Canucks today.
I guess the team wanted to make sure that Miller got through practice comfortably before making a decision on Thatcher Demko. After backing up Jacob Markstrom for two games over the weekend, Demko has now been re-assigned back to Utica.
As for the Hurricanes, they're home after a three-game road trip through California that saw them go 1-1-1—beating the Kings, losing to the Sharks, and dropping a shootout decision to the Ducks. They played last on Saturday in San Jose before heading home to start a four-game pre-holiday homestand.
Carolina will be getting centre Jordan Staal back in the lineup tonight—he has missed the last seven games with a concussion. Winger Elias Lindholm will also return after having missed the last five games with a lower-body injury.
Our old pal Eddie Lack took the loss against Vancouver back in October, but he has been sidelined since suffering a concussion in practice back in late November.
Lack was struggling this season even before he was injured. He had a 1-2-1 record in five appearances, with an .856 save percentage and a 3.79 goals-against average.
Cam Ward will get the start for Carolina tonight. The 32-year-old is having his best season in six years, with a .917 save percentage and a 2.25 goals-against average.
Like the Canucks, the Hurricanes struggle to score. They also don't have a player over the 10-goal threshold yet—their leading scorers are Jeff Skinner with 9-13-22 and Victor Rask with 9-12-21. For the Canucks, the Sedins are back in the team scoring lead. Daniel is 9-10-19 and Henrik is 7-11-18.
It's another early game, with a 4:00 start on Sportsnet. Enjoy!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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